The Matrix Reloaded
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| The Matrix Reloaded | |
|---|---|
| Image:Matrix Reloaded Cover.jpg | |
| Directed by | The Wachowski brothers |
| Produced by | Joel Silver, The Wachowski brothers |
| Written by | The Wachowski brothers |
| Starring | Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, Daniel Bernhardt, Monica Bellucci |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros, Village Roadshow Pictures |
| Release date(s) | May 15 2003 |
| Running time | 138 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $150,000,000 (estimated) |
| Preceded by | The Matrix |
| Followed by | The Matrix Revolutions |
| IMDb profile | |
The Matrix Reloaded is the second installment of The Matrix series, written and directed by the Wachowski brothers. It premiered on May 7, 2003 in Westwood, Los Angeles, California and went on general release by Warner Bros. in North American theaters on May 15, 2003 and around the world during the latter half of that month. The Matrix Reloaded earned $281 million in the US and $738 million worldwide, making it the 28th highest grossing film in the US and Canada, and the 23rd highest-grossing film worldwide. The other parts of the second installment are the video game Enter the Matrix, which was released May 15, and a collection of nine animated shorts, the Animatrix, which was released on June 3. The Matrix Revolutions was released six months after this film, in November 2003.
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[edit] Overview
The Matrix Reloaded was largely filmed at Fox Studios Australia in Sydney, Australia. The freeway chase scene was filmed at the decommissioned Naval Air Station Alameda in Alameda, California. Producers constructed a 1.5-mile freeway on the old runways just for the movie. Portions of the chase were also filmed in Oakland, California, and the tunnel shown briefly is the Webster Tube connecting Oakland and Alameda. Some post-production editing was done in old aircraft hangers on the base as well.
The Matrix Reloaded did surpass the first part of the trilogy in cinematography and special/visual effects budget and scope. Some scholars have said that the relatively simple tale of "dualism" in the first film has advanced to the level of "complex literature" with the second (Ken Wilber), though the topic is a highly debated one, with other critics arguing that the sequel is of the action genre with less of a focus on the plot. According to popular movie-review collection website Rotten Tomatoes, 75% percent of critics approved of the sequel.
Reloaded earned an estimated $42.5 million on its Thursday opening day in the United States, a new record surpassing the one set in May 2002 by Spider-Man, which took in $39.4 million on its first day. The movie earned $91.8 million over its first Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, establishing it as the second-best opening weekend ever after Spider-Man's 2002 (inflation unadjusted) record of $114.8 million in ticket sales during its three-day opening weekend. Reloaded garnered the biggest (inflation unadjusted) debut ever for an R-rated film (the 2001 film Hannibal is a distant second at $58 million). Adjusted for inflation, it is currently the 97th highest grossing film of all time.
Many of the main characters from its predecessor, The Matrix, are included in Reloaded, including Neo (Keanu Reeves), Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), and Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss). There are also many new faces such as Link, the Merovingian, and the Architect.
Cornel West, a professor at Princeton, makes a special appearance in the Zion "council" scene. Another notable cameo is boxing great Roy Jones Jr., who appears in the opening scene with a number of other ship's captains, right before Smith makes his appearance. Filmed simultaneously to the third movie, The Matrix Revolutions, it includes action scenes such as a chase involving over 50 vehicles, including motorcycles and 18-wheelers. In addition, there is finally footage of Zion, the underground city alluded to in The Matrix.
[edit] Controversy
The film was banned in Egypt because of the violent content and because it put into question issues about human creation "linked to the three monotheistic religions that we respect and which we believe in".[1] Egyptian media claimed it promoted Zionism since it talks about Zion and the dark forces that wish to destroy it. However, it was later allowed to air in theatres and was later released on DVD and VHS.
[edit] Plot
The film presupposes familiarity with the storyline of The Matrix.
[edit] The Final Flight Of The Osiris
Six months after the events of the first film, Captain Niobe (Jada Pinkett Smith) of the Logos calls an emergency meeting of all Zion's Hovercraft Ship Fleet. She has successfully recovered the information left by Captain Thadeus (in the Animatrix short film "Final Flight of the Osiris"): 250,000 sentinels are tunneling towards the underground city of Zion and will reach it in 72 hours (Zion is at a depth of at least 21 km). Commander Lock, the ranking military officer of Zion, orders all ships and their crews, including Neo, Trinity, and Morpheus, to return to Zion to prepare for the onslaught of the machines. Morpheus defies Lock's directive and asks one ship to remain at broadcast depth to await word from the Oracle. Morpheus believes that when she contacts Neo, she will tell Neo how to fulfill the Prophecy. Captain Ballard, captain of the Caduceus, accepts the challenge.
The Caduceus receives a message from the Oracle, and the Nebuchadnezzar ventures out to allow Neo to contact her directly. Meanwhile, one of the Caduceus' crew members, Bane, encounters Agent Smith while receiving the Oracle's message, who then copies himself onto Bane. Bane/Smith then leaves the Matrix.
[edit] Meeting the Oracle
Before the meeting, Neo is having trouble sleeping and has recurring dreams about the death of Trinity. During their relief in Zion, Trinity and Neo have sex while the rest of Zion's inhabitants attend a celebration (similar to a rave) in Zion's great temple. The celebration begins with an inspiring speech by Morpheus, who rallies the cause of the humans fight for their survival in this latest machine attack. After the meeting and after the Nebuchadnezzar is charged in Zion, Neo enters the Matrix to meet with the Oracle. Upon reaching the meeting area, he encounters Seraph, the Oracle's bodyguard (he is effectively a firewall, or more accurately, a CHAP, who restricts access to the Oracle program via a method of validation). Seraph fights a duel with Neo and after he determines that Neo is who he claims to be, he leads him into a hallway which appears to be filled with nothing but doors.
Through conversation with his guide, Neo determines that the passageway and doors represent backdoor access to various locations in the Matrix. Seraph leads Neo to an isolated courtyard, where he meets with the Oracle again, and they have a conversation which in some respects parallels their conversation of the first film. She is aware of Neo's sleeplessness. Neo then asks her if she is human or not, and she confirms that she is not. Neo then says she must be a program of the Machine World, and the Oracle confirms that as well. Neo says if she is a program, then she could be another system of control involved with the Matrix; he is not sure if he can trust her or not. The Oracle then agrees and confronts Neo with a choice: he must either trust her or not, by saying "You'll just have to make up your own damn mind, to either accept what I've got to tell you or reject it."
The Oracle explains other self-aware programs exist beside the Agents, who have various roles in running the Matrix. Sometimes these programs go awry, and, somewhat analogous to free humans, they voluntarily disconnect themselves from the Source, the machine mainframe, and exist in exile in the Matrix. The implication is that she and Seraph are two such rogue programs. The Oracle then says in order to fulfill the prophecy, Neo must reach the Source.
To reach the Source, Neo must first seek the Keymaker, another rogue program. His keys give access to all Matrix "back doors." The Keymaker is held captive by The Merovingian, a dangerous program, among the eldest in the Matrix.
The Oracle wishes Neo good luck and exits the courtyard just before Program Smith (formerly "Agent Smith" but never referred to as an "Agent" in this movie) arrives. While it appeared that he was destroyed at the end of The Matrix by Neo, Smith explains that he and Neo are now somehow connected. Some part of Neo had imprinted onto him, causing a deep transformation (perhaps through a newly-acquired sense of purpose, typical of humans but alien to a machine). Disobeying deletion, Smith is no longer an Agent of the system; he, like Neo, is free. Several clues suggest he has become a virus program: he has become more aggressive, has gained the ability to make endless duplicates of himself, and has decided that his purpose in life is destruction as an end in itself. After this brief explanation, he recruits an ever-increasing gang of self-copies to attack Neo (a scene known as "The Burly Brawl"). At the end of the fight, Neo overpowers a mountain of Smiths and flies to an exit.
[edit] Cause & Effect
Neo, Trinity, and Morpheus leave to visit the Merovingian, who exists in the Matrix mainly for his own enjoyment. He is accompanied by his wife Persephone and The Twins. When the protagonist trio request the Keymaker, the Merovingian instead responds with his own line of questions. The Keymaker "...is not a reason," according to the Merovingian. "This is not a why. The Keymaker himself—his very nature—is a means. It is not an end. And so to look for him is to be looking for a means to do ... what?" Not receiving an answer to his satisfaction, the Merovingian makes some oblique remarks about cause and effect before refusing them access to the Keymaker. Denied, the trio leave, only to be unexpectedly led to the Keymaker by Persephone (Monica Bellucci). She does this in return for a kiss by Neo because she had grown tired of her husband's escapades. Then Merovingian comes and orders his followers to catch the keymaker. Neo stays behind to fight a half dozen of the Merovingian's followers, earlier versions of Agents who are described by the Oracle as being similar to "vampires, ghosts and werewolves".
Trinity and Morpheus briefly escape the Twins with the Keymaker, stealing a nearby car and are chased onto a freeway by the Twins, who are later joined by two Agents. A lengthy car chase follows where Morpheus and Trinity continuously dodge traffic, attempting to keep the Keymaker alive.
[edit] After the Chase
Meanwhile, in the real world, we learn the machine army will reach Zion in just over nine hours. In response, the entire hovercraft fleet is strategically placed for a surprise counter-attack before the army reaches Zion.
Inside the Matrix, having survived the freeway chase, the Keymaker explains how to reach the Source: "There is a building. Inside this building there is a level where no elevator can go and no stair can reach. This level is filled with doors. These doors lead to many places. Hidden places. But one door is special. One door leads to the Source." To access the building, its alarm must be disabled and to do that the electricity must be cut. In addition, the core network of the electricity grid must be accessed and the emergency fail-safes deactivated. For 314 seconds, the mainframe can be entered, but the Keymaker warns, "Only the One can open the door, and only during that window can the door be opened."
Neo decides not to take Trinity into the matrix because he feared that his dream will come true and Trinity will die. He makes her promise that she will not come into the matrix. Another Zion crew infiltrates the power station but before they can disable the electricity fail-safes, their ship in the real world is found by sentinels and destroyed and hence they die in the Matrix before their mission is complete.
[edit] Meeting the Architect
Realizing that the power grid will not be down in time when Neo tries to unlock the vital door and that therefore the building's "alarm" (a massive bomb) will be tripped, Trinity disobeys Neo's request and enters the Matrix. She single-handedly infiltrates the control area and hacks into the control grid's mainframe just in time to disrupt the power grid and to allow Neo to follow the Keymaker's instructions and open the door to the Source. He enters a room surrounded by television monitors (reminiscent of the ones watching him during the interrogation scene in the first film), all showing his image, and encounters the Architect, who describes himself as the creator of the Matrix.
Neo asks the main question: "Why am I here?"
The Architect says Neo is "the eventuality of an anomaly" he has been trying to eradicate from the Matrix program. The Architect says while he has been unsuccessful in eliminating this anomaly "from what is otherwise a harmony of mathematical precision", he has succeeded in controlling it. It is this control system that "has led [Neo], inexorably, here."
Neo responds by saying the Architect has failed to answer his question, to which the Architect agrees with a slight smile in recognition that Neo was "quicker than the others". The various images of Neo on the Architect's monitors then respond with various reactions ranging from relatively subdued (such as "'Others'? What 'others'?") to childish ("I want out! I want out! I want out!"), to rage-filled (flipping off the outside of the monitor and shouting "FUCK YOU!!!" at the top of his lungs), indicating perhaps the various possible responses that either the Architect or the Matrix has calculated. The camera zooms in one of the monitors, indicating one of the possibilities is realized.
Neo is caught off-guard by what he is seeing, but the Architect continues as though nothing has happened. He says that "the Matrix is older than you know". He says that he distinguishes each 'version' of the Matrix every time a 'Neo eventuality' emerges, "in which case, this is the sixth version". Therefore, Neo is the sixth in a series of eventualities or "Ones". Once again, the different monitors express Neo's various possible reactions, and the camera zooms in on one (physically passing through the screen's surface) to show the choice Neo makes: "there are only two possible explanations. Either no one told me, or no one knows".
The Architect confirms Neo's deduction and reveals how these anomalous errors occur "in even the most simplistic equations". Seeing the monitors react once again, Neo suddenly realizes why these errors occur: "Choice. The problem is choice."
The Architect proceeds to detail the history of the Matrix and just how this problem of choice affected its design. The first version of the Matrix was intended to be "perfect", "flawless" and "sublime", a design previously hinted at by Agent Smith in The Matrix. However, the humans refused to accept this utopia and it failed. Thinking that humans needed to have an imperfect world to survive, he created the second version of the Matrix "to more accurately reflect the varying grotesqueries of [human] nature." However, he "was again frustrated by failure."
[edit] The Fundamental Flaw
With some reluctance, he admits that the "lesser mind" of an "intuitive program" (presumably the Oracle even though the Architect scoffs at the suggestion) was required to help understand why he was failing. Apparently, the Oracle concluded that humans need to be given a choice, even if only aware of it at an unconscious level, to make them more likely to accept their simulated lives. After this modification about 99% of the pod-born humans accepted the program, thus bringing stability to the Matrix.
However, this method was "fundamentally flawed" in the sense that, by giving these choices, it is not possible to have complete control over human actions and their lives. This gives rise to the "systemic anomaly" (those who refused the program, including Neo himself) which, if left unchecked, would pose a threat to the stability of the system and give rise to a 'critical mass' of "an escalating probability of disaster."
Neo concludes that the one percent who refused the program (and their offspring) constitute the population of Zion. The Architect explains that the solution they came up with was to terminate the inhabitants of Zion at the same time as the next anomaly emerged.
It now becomes clear that the prophecy about the "end of the war" was designed merely as a measure to control both the Zionite rebels and the One.
[edit] The Choice
The Architect continues to reveal that "the function of the One is now to return to the Source" in order for him to integrate with it and "reinsert the prime program" embedded within him. His final task will be to "select from the Matrix 23 individuals - 16 females, 7 males - to rebuild Zion."
The Architect then warns Neo, "Failure to comply with this process will result in a cataclysmic system crash, killing everyone connected to the Matrix, which, coupled with the extermination of Zion will ultimately result in the extinction of the entire human race."
Neo tries to call the Architect's bluff saying that humans are necessary for machines to survive, but the Architect merely rebuts that claim by saying that machines are prepared to accept "certain levels of survival" and re-states Neo's dilemma, whether he is or is not ready to accept the responsibility for the death of every human being in this world.
The Architect is then intrigued by Neo's reaction. He says that his predecessors were "by design" made to develop "a profound attachment" with humanity, but he says that Neo is interestingly different. His attachment and his thought is currently focused on one particular individual: Trinity. As a side-note, he adds that she entered the Matrix to save Neo's life at the expense of her own, and shows Trinity being attacked by an Agent just as Neo had seen in his dream. As far as the Architect is concerned, there should be no dilemma — Trinity will die, whether Neo enters the Source or not. He puts it as "She is going to die and there is nothing you can do to stop it."
Thus Neo is presented with the ultimate choice of two doors: "The door to your right leads to the Source, and to the salvation of Zion. The door to your left leads back to the Matrix, to her, and to the end of your species. As you so adequately put — 'the problem is choice'."
Despite all logical reasoning, Neo chooses to try and save Trinity over the rest of humanity, and for the first time every screen shows the same decision, demonstrating his belief in this reaction to the dichotomy. The Architect sardonically offers one final conclusion:
- "Hope. It is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength and your greatest weakness."
Neo gives a final veiled threat to Architect saying that he'd better hope he never sees Neo again, and with that, Neo leaves the conduit between the Matrix and the Source to save Trinity. Defying both his visions and the Architect, he catches her just before she was to have fallen from a skyscraper but not before she takes a critical bullet from an Agent. Neo reciprocates Trinity's saving of his life in the first film and uses his powers to remove the bullet and restart her heart after it stops, bringing her back to life.
[edit] The Revolution
Morpheus is very dismayed when he hears that the Prophecy has been unfulfilled. Neo tells Morpheus that the Prophecy was just "a lie" and "another system of control." Morpheus refuses to believe it, and, echoing the words of his mentor in the first film, Neo says "I know it isn't easy to hear, but I swear to you it's the truth."
The Nebuchadnezzar comes under attack by Sentinels outside the range of their EMP and the crew must abandon ship. As the ship goes down, Morpheus references the story of Nebuchadnezzar from the Bible, saying he had a dream but is now 'awakened' (in the story, a dream by the King is interpretated). In the sewers outside, they flee, but Neo senses something has changed; he can "feel" the Sentinels' presence. He halts the Sentinels as he would bullets in the Matrix, but immediately loses consciousness. As his shipmates rush to his aid, they are rescued by another craft, the Mjolnir (referred to as the Hammer, a reference to the hammer of Thor). The film concludes with the news that Zion's counter-attack with carefully positioned ships has failed. An electromagnetic pulse was activated too early, downing five hovercraft immediately. The break in the ships' lines allowed the machines to overrun them all. The only survivor of this massacre is revealed to be Bane — the red pill overwritten by Smith's consciousness, and the only human who desires to kill Neo. The final shot shows Bane's unconscious body lying inches away from Neo's.
The story is concluded in the last film of the trilogy, The Matrix: Revolutions.
[edit] Reception
The Matrix Reloaded had a positive critical reception in most of the media, with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 74%.
Criticisms and acclaim, on record, are at times similar to those leveled at the movie's predecessor[2].
Positive comments included commendation for the quality and intensity of its action sequences[3][4] and intelligence[5]. Some critics have exceptional praise for it, saying that "its character development and writing...is so crisp it crackles on the screen" and have said that "Matrix Reloaded re-establishes the genre and even raises the bar a notch or two" above the first movie, The Matrix. [6]
Negative comments included the sentiment that the plot alienated many critics[7][8], who claimed that the focus on the action came at the cost of the movie's human element[9][10]. Some also said that the dialogue focus on exposition scenes [11] worked against the film. Although it was well-known that the plot of Reloaded would be resolved in Revolutions, the many unresolved subplots and the cliffhanger ending were criticised by some[12].
[edit] Soundtrack
Don Davis, composer on The Matrix, returned to score Reloaded. For many of the pivotal action sequences, such as the "Burly Brawl" he collaborated with Juno Reactor. Some of the collaborative cues by Davis and Juno Reactor are extensions of material by Juno Reactor; for example, a version of Komit featuring Davis' strings is used during a flying sequence, and Burly Brawl is essentially a combination of Davis' unused Multiple Replication and Juno Reactor's Masters of the Universe. One of the collaborations, Mona Lisa Overdrive, is titled in reference to the cyberpunk novel of the same name by William Gibson, a major influence on the directors. Leitmotifs established in The Matrix return, and some used in Revolutions are established.
As with its predecessor, many tracks by external musicians are featured in the movie, its closing credits, and the soundtrack album, some of which were written for the movie. Many of the musicians featured (for example Rob Zombie and Rage Against the Machine) had also appeared on the soundtrack for The Matrix. Rob Dougan contributed again, licensing the instrumental version of his eponymous Furious Angels, as well as being commissioned to provide an original track, ultimately scoring the battle in the Merovingian's chateau.
[edit] Cast
- Keanu Reeves as Neo
- Laurence Fishburne as Morpheus
- Carrie-Anne Moss as Trinity
- Hugo Weaving as Agent Smith
- Gloria Foster as The Oracle
- Helmut Bakaitis as The Architect
- Lambert Wilson as The Merovingian
- Monica Bellucci as Persephone
- Adrian Rayment as Twin #2
- Neil Rayment as Twin #1
- Daniel Bernhardt as Agent Johnson
- Sing Ngai as Seraph (as Collin Chou)
- Nona Gaye as Zee - replaced Aaliyah, who died in a plane crash in the summer of 2001.
- Roy Jones Jr. as Captain Ballard
- David A. Kilde as Agent Jackson
- Randall Duk Kim as The Keymaker
- Harry J. Lennix as Commander Lock
- Matt McColm as Agent Thompson
- Harold Perrineau Jr. as Link
- Jada Pinkett Smith as Niobe
- Gina Torres as Cas
- Cornel West as Councillor West
- Bernard White as Rama-Kandra
- Anthony Wong as Ghost
- Anthony Zerbe as Councillor Hamann
- Stoney Burke as the bike carrier driver
[edit] Parody
A parody of The Matrix Reloaded, with scenes from the movie edited to incorporate Justin Timberlake, Seann William Scott and Will Ferrell, was used to introduce the 2003 MTV Movie Awards.
The Oracle, Morpheus, and the Architect are parodied in Scary Movie 3.
G.O.R.A. also parodies some key scenes from the film, along with other ones from famous sci-fi movies like Star Wars and The Fifth Element.
Manylemons Productions, a internet movie producer, made a parody called The Narutrix Reninja'd, which consists of scenes from Naruto set to the audio from the Matrix Reloaded trailer.
[edit] Trivia
- Cain and Abel, the two Merovingian thugs who Persephone barges in on are watching The Brides of Dracula, a Hammer Horror film. It is implied that they may be some form of vampire or werewolf (silver kills them). Cain (spelled 'Caine' within the setting) is also known as the father of all vampires in the White Wolf's Vampire: The Masquerade RPG.
- Every vehicle in the chase scene is a General Motors brand.
- The motorcycle Trinity rides in the chase scene is a Ducati 996.
- In the scene where Neo first meets the Merovingian we are provided a short glimpse at a man being escorted away from the Merovingians table. He makes eye contact with Neo, giving us a clear view of his face. He is later (in the third movie) identified as Rama-Kandra who attempts to smuggle his daughter (Sati) in to of the Matrix by striking a deal with the Merovingian.
- The freeway on which the chase sequence was filmed was constructed strictly for the film because they could not find a suitable location. Mythbusters, in a myth that required they also crash two semis in a head-on collision, would later reuse the set for that very purpose.
- When Trinity uses nmap and the fictitious program sshnuke to hack into the power station's computer system, she uses the password "Z1ON0101". Note the subsitution of the number "1" for the letter "I", a transliteration common in leetspeak.
- When Smith pulls up in an Audi at the beginning of the film, his license plate is IS 5416. In the King James Bible, Isaiah 54:16 says, "Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy."
- The original script for The Matrix Reloaded had Smith return as an Agent. In one scene, the Matrix is frozen, and Agent Smith copies himself into all the inhabitants of the Matrix temporarily. It is also interesting to note that MetaCortechs, the company Neo used to work for, was the location of the Machine mainframe, and was going to be destroyed by Neo as part of the prophecy that said he would destroy the Matrix.
- During the highway chase, when it shows the view from inside a police car of an agent about to jump of the bridge, the radio give a message to "1 Adam-12", the unit name of the main characters in the show Adam-12.
- 97% of the materials from the sets of the movie were recycled. For example, tons of wood were sent to Mexico to build low-income housing.[13]
[edit] External links
- The Matrix Reloaded Official Website
- The Matrix Reloaded at the Internet Movie Database
- The Many Meanings of The Matrix, Larry Wachowski in a dialogue with Ken Wilber.
- The Matrix Reloaded Explained - a comparative-literature-style exegesis of selected parts of Matrix Reloaded.
- Newsweek: The Matrix Makers - A look behind the scenes at the Matrix sequels (possible spoilers).
- The Matrix Reloaded October 27, 2001 draft script by Andy & Larry Wachowski
- BBC News: Egypt bans 'too religious' Matrix
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